Adding User Ratings and Comments

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Tim Higgins

Although our product reviews are very detailed, they provide only one person’s view. And since reviewers live with products only for a very brief time, reviews can’t speak to a product’s long term reliability. So I’m thinking of adding a product rating and comment system.

The idea is to allow anyone, i.e. you won’t have to register, to rate products we’ve reviewed for Features, Performance and Reliability. You’ll be able to do this right from the article and you won’t have to register.

You’ll also be able to post a single comment along with your rating. Multiple comments won’t be allowed, since we already have the SNB Forums for extended discussions. The ratings comment feature is mainly to allow raters to provide a bit more information about their product experiences.

I’ll initially allow comments for everyone. But if this becomes a spam magnet, I’ll switch to moderated comments and / or require registration for commenting.

My hope is that this will allow readers to tap into a wider base of experience when researching prospective purchases. But it will be useful only if a significant number of people contribute.

So the question really is, if we add this capability, will you use it to contribute your experience and wisdom? Please let me know by leaving a Forums comment via the link below. (You don’t have to register, but the comment will be moderated.) Thanks.

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